Everybody Loves Barack

EVERYBODY LOVES BARACK....According to Gallup, President Obama is handily winning the stimulus debate: 67% of Americans approve of the way he's handling the stimulus bill compared to only 31% who approve of the way congressional Republicans are handling it. And if anything, these numbers will probably diverge even more as Obama goes on the road this week to sell the bill.

And there's more good news for Obama in this poll. Over 50% of respondents have more confidence than they did two weeks ago in Obama's ability to improve the economy and manage the federal government. And 80% believe that passing the stimulus bill is either important or critically important.

That's some serious wind at his back. The question is: does this mean he never really needed to compromise on the bill in the first place? Or are these poll results partly a result of the fact that he was willing to compromise? I'm pretty skeptical of Obama's efforts to reach across the aisle on this stuff, but I have to admit that the latter seems pretty plausible to me. Compromise might have its benefits after all.